Siri Shortcuts have been around for a while now, but only with iOS 14 has Apple really made them truly useful. You can now run automations more easily, there are more options, and the Shortcuts app doesn’t open when you run a shortcut. All of those are great things. So, if you are looking to use Shortcuts to make your life easier, here are the 12 best Siri Shortcuts and automations for iPhone power users.
There are a lot of shortcuts for the iPhone shortcuts app out there. However, most of them are very basic, and not something that will really add value to your iPhone usage. Then again, there are a lot that are quite useful too.
- Change Apple Watch Face
- Get Song Links Across Streaming Platforms
- Automatically Launch Spotify When Connected to Bluetooth Device
- Launch Spotify Playlist When Connected to Bluetooth Device
- Schedule Messages to be Sent Later
- Toggle DND When Playing a Game
- Enable Guided Access While Playing Games
- Speak Text When Battery is Fully Charged
- Shortcut to Read Weather, Play News and More
- Download YouTube Videos
- Switch User Accounts on Apple TV
- Eject Water from iPhone
1. Change Apple Watch Face
With iOS 14 and watchOS 7 you can now use Shortcuts to change your Apple Watch face easily. Plus, since you can use Shortcuts directly on Apple Watch, you don’t necessarily need to run it from your iPhone either.
Open the Shortcuts app and tap on ‘Automation’. Tap on the ‘plus’ icon on the top right of your screen.
Tap on ‘Next’, disable ‘Ask Before Running’ and tap ‘Done’.
With the number of music streaming platforms out there, it’s likely that you and your friends use different ones. That means if you try sharing a Spotify link with someone that uses Apple Music, it’s pretty much useless. Fortunately, with this shortcut, you can convert links across platforms to share them.
- You can now copy the URL, share it, or directly open Spotify with the link. Once you’re done, just tap on ‘Exit’ to close the shortcut.
This is an automation that’s helpful if you like using Spotify while you’re driving. Setting it up isn’t as straightforward as any other app because Spotify doesn’t show up in Shortcuts’ list of apps. However, there’s a workaround.
- Tap ‘Next’ and then tap on ‘Add Action’.
The only issue with this automation is that it won’t run automatically. Any time your iPhone is connected to the Bluetooth device, your phone will ask you whether to run the automation. Unfortunately, there’s no workaround for this at the moment.
4. Launch Spotify Playlist When Connected to Bluetooth Device
If you have a specific Spotify playlist you want to go to every time you’re driving, you can follow the steps below.
Now, every time this automation runs, it will directly open the Spotify playlist in the Spotify app for you. Pretty neat right?
If you often find yourself in situations where you need to send messages at a later time without forgetting, this Siri Shortcut for iPhone is really useful. It takes some time to set up, but then you’re all good to go with scheduling reminders.
You can download this shortcut here.
One of the most annoying things during gaming is definitely notifications that pop down. They obstruct your view, and if you’re playing something like COD Mobile or PUBG Mobile, you’ll probably end up dying due to the distraction.
- Tap on ‘Create Personal Automation’ and select ‘App’.
Now whenever you launch your game of choice (COD, in this example), your iPhone will automatically go into Do Not Disturb mode.
If you’re like me, you probably play Call of Duty with a three or four finger claw. But a lot of times you’ll end up pulling down the control center when pressing the fire button with your index finger. Fortunately, with Siri automations in iOS 14, you can automatically launch guided access when you start your games.
8. Speak Text When Battery is Fully Charged
With iOS 14 you get notifications when your Apple Watch is completely charged. However, it would be great if you could easily know when your iPhone was done charging as well, right? You can do just that with an easy automation.
- Tap ‘Create Personal Automation’ and select ‘Battery Level’.
Your iPhone will now speak your chosen phrase the moment it charges to 100%. That means you can remove it from the charger once it’s done charging without letting your battery get charged for no reason.
9. Shortcut to Read Weather, Play News and More
Every morning, you probably check the weather for the day, and catch up on the news. Shortcuts on iPhone can make this easy for you. Simply download this shortcut (download).
If you’re watching a video on your iPhone that you want to save to your device for editing, or sharing, you don’t need to try out random downloader apps. You can use Siri Shortcuts to download YouTube videos as well.
If you’re using an Apple TV in your home, you can use Siri Shortcuts to switch user accounts as well. That can come in really handy. If this is something you think you wanna do, you should check out our article on using Siri Shortcuts to switch Apple TV users.
Yeah, you read that right. If your iPhone was submerged in water, or if you ended up washing it because it was just too dirty (not recommended, by the way), you can eject water from inside the iPhone using Siri Shortcuts as well.
